Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

In history, all pirates like Zheng Zhilong have negative records.

I opened the history book and found in the empty gaps - this was an era when people cannibalized people and had the face of a Bodhisattva. This was a book full of absurdities.

From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to Taizu and the end of the Zheng family in the Southern Ming Dynasty, pirates emerged one after another.

The more famous ones include Li Dan, Wang Zhi, Liu Xiang, etc...

Whether it is the private records of the people at that time or the official history books, they all record the strength and ferocity of the pirates. It is so bad that they have sores on their heads and pus on their feet.

however……

Ha ha!

May I ask, can pirates produce goods or can they collect goods?

Or is it the age of magicians? Conjuring goods out of thin air?

In the final analysis - pirates only control the transportation link.

If you have a little brain, you will understand that at any time, transportation is only an integral part of the trade chain, not the decisive part.

Just like in later generations, do truck drivers make money?

When making money, regardless of any industry, risks and returns are proportional to a large extent.

But, to put it more bluntly, without cargo, does a truck driver make any money?

Make some money.

By the same token - where did the cargo that filled the pirate ship come from?

The answer in the history books—robbed!

Maybe, maybe, should, maybe the striped coats of Qingshan Second Academy should believe it...

……

During the Ming Dynasty, there were generally six major commercial systems:

Shanxi merchants who transported to the north; Lianghuai salt merchants who relied on the salt policy; tea merchants in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hu, Hanzhong and Henan; clan-based maritime merchants in Guangdong and Guangxi who mainly produced and sold their own products; Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, etc. The new smuggling merchants in the area around the sea; the rest are the Huizhou merchants who have risen through maritime trade.

Among them, the targets of Shanxi merchants were Mongolia and Manchuria outside the Pass;

The official background of the salt merchants was too strong and there were few changes;

The tea merchants earned coolie money;

The smuggling merchants in Guangdong and Guangxi are mostly clan-based. They own their own ships and sell tea, silk, porcelain, etc. produced locally or nearby. They are scattered, expressed in clans or regions, and have chaotic factions. ;

Those most closely associated with maritime trade were Huizhou merchants and the wealthy Jiangnan families from Fujian to Jiangsu and Zhejiang who mainly specialized in cotton spinning, silk, raw silk, and porcelain.

How powerful were the Huizhou merchants during the Ming Dynasty? There was a saying in China at that time, "There is no town without Huizhou!"

Even Wang Zhi, the sea pirate, was a member of Huizhou merchants.

(Wang Zhi refused to admit that he was a pirate until his death. No matter how tortured he was, he always said that he was a member of Huizhou merchants. This shows the close relationship between Huizhou merchants and pirates. Hu Zongxian, who was Zhaoan Wangzhi, was from Huizhou.)

The latter two are the source of pirates' goods!

In other words, the source of the Zheng family's cargo owners does not include Guangdong and Guangxi.

This is proven by the subsequent development of the Zheng family and its confrontation with the pirates of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Because the latter is a clan form and produces and sells itself, it is a relatively exclusive group.

Anyone who knows something about human progress will understand that with the development of civilization, the means of production will gradually become monopolized.

The same is true for the transportation link (pirates) in the maritime trade chain!

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, pirates annexed each other, and now the most powerful one is Zheng Zhilong.

Even the sea coachman, a Dutchman, called him Nikolai Iguan.

How powerful Nicholas Igguan was, none of the European explorers and official organizations, including the famous East India Company, dared to stroke the tiger's beard.

Are the Dutch awesome?

The world-dominated sea coachman is invincible in battles all over the world!

But he had to bow to Zheng Zhilong in Asia.

The Dutch need to pay the Zheng family a toll of 12 Dutch gold francs every year.

I have not been able to find accurate data on the gold content of francs from this period. There are two versions of gold francs produced in later dynasties. The gold franc produced at the end of the seventeenth century contained 6.45 grams of gold, and the gold content of the nineteenth century was 3.5 grams.

In other words, even if calculated according to the subsequent gold franc:

The Dutch, who dominate the world, need to pay 0.774 tons or 0.42 tons of gold to Zheng Zhilong every year.

Mind you, this is gold.

If you still don’t know the power of this quantity, here is a comparative data: my country’s gold reserves in 2012 were 1054 tons.

This is the power of the Zheng family now that they have mastered half of the transportation (pirate power) links.

Why half?

Because the smugglers in Guangdong and Guangxi, especially in Foshan and Chaoshan, are in the form of clans, and their folk customs have always been tough and not afraid of death.

They are on their own and don't buy into Zheng Zhilong's fault.

……

It stands to reason that the Zheng family is so powerful, how could the future surnamed master of the country appear in the house of Qian Qianyi, a man who is not satisfied with his officialdom?

This issue is worth considering...

……

The night has fallen.

Zheng Sen walked out of the Qian family's mansion drunk, and Qian Qianyi personally sent him out.

"Teacher, please don't send it away. The student is fine."

Zheng Sen smelled of alcohol and bowed to Qian Qianyi.

"Forget it, Damu should be careful and remember to take more detours. Now in my house..."

Qian Qianyi smiled bitterly.

Next to him, Liu Rushi, a beautiful young woman with a slightly bulging belly, held his arm tightly and said in a weak voice:

"Yes, we are not welcome now, so don't get involved, Damu."

"Teacher, please be at ease, madam. They are just one-two punch clowns. They don't know the teacher's intentions. Why should the teacher care about such people!"

Zheng Sen staggered two steps and was about to fall, so he hurriedly grabbed the arm of the servant who came up to help him.

He turned his head unsteadily and spoke to Qian Qianyi.

Qian Qianyi held his long snow-white beard in his hand, and laughed heartily when he heard this: "Haha, what Damu said is that there is no need to worry about a clown jumping off the beam once or twice!"

Liu Rushi also nodded gratefully to Zheng Sen and said, "The night is deep. Slow down on the big wooden road."

"Teacher, take care, and Master, take care."

"Be careful on the road."

Qian Qianyi took Liu Rushi and waved goodbye.

……

Zheng Sen got on the carriage, his cloudy eyes had returned to normal, and he was still half drunk.

There was another person on the carriage, a short, stout man with a scar on his face from the end of his eye to his chin, like an earthworm, extremely ferocious.

This person was none other than Zheng Zhilong's fifth brother Zheng Zhibao, who was promoted to deputy chief soldier of the Fujian Navy.

Of course, this was just an official position. Because of Zheng Zhilong's strength, the Fujian Navy at this time was already extremely weak.

Zheng Zhibao, the deputy commander of the navy, has never been to Dian Mao!

"Fifth father, I don't understand."

Zheng Sen frowned: "Although Qian Muzhai is the leader of the Donglin Party, he is not tolerated by the court and has long since lost power. Now he is just a casual official."

"You can't figure it out?"

Zheng Zhibao smiled, and the scars on his face became more and more conspicuous: "It's just a hundred thousand snowflakes. Let alone you, even I can't figure it out."

"Then Fifth Dad, you still want me to give you such an expensive gift?" Zheng Sen looked puzzled.

He and Qian Qianyi are just teachers and students.